“For me, the luminosity of sound has always been a goal,” Manfred Eicher tells the camera in an early sequence of Sounds and Silence: Travels With Manfred Eicher [ECM]. “A beautifully ringing tone, for instance, is like the streak of...

Rare is the hardcore jazz musician under 40 who hasn’t soaked up the contents of the seven CDs that comprise Miles Davis: The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel: 1965.Released in 1995, and long out of print, that box set...

The publicity credits for Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label [Rizzoli Press], which hits the market in early October, cite co-authors Bill Adler and Dan Charnas, essayist Kelefa Sanneh, and label founders Rick...